As we head into the holiday season, we celebrate a very successful first half of the 2017-18 athletic year. With the fall season behind us, I would like to take a moment and congratulate our student-athletes for their incredible accomplishments both on the field of play and in the classroom.
We were pleased to honour 360 student-athletes who were recognized as Academic All-Stars at a breakfast celebration on November 22nd – approximately 41% of our student-athletes maintained at least a 3.5 grade point average last year, all the while competing in their respective sports. The varsity clubs with the highest GPAs were triathlon and track and field, while the highest GPAs from a varsity team were women's and men's soccer.
The Nixon Academic Leadership Award was given out to the male and female athletes from both the varsity teams and clubs who have exemplified achievement in academics, community service and fair play in their sport. This year's recipients of the Nixon Award were Erin Lee; Women's Swimming, Sam Dobbin; Men's Triathlon, Emily Gervais; Women's Hockey, and Ejaz Causer; Football. Congratulations to each of our award winners for their dedication and commitment to both athletics and academics here at Queen's.
On the field of play, our student-athletes accomplishments were equally as impressive – many of our teams and clubs competed for medals and banners including:
- Women's Soccer captured OUA Bronze
- Women's Cross Country won OUA gold and U SPORTS silver, Men's Cross Country took OUA bronze
- Queen's Sailing won its 7th straight CICSA team racing national championship
- Men's Rugby captured OUA gold
- Queen's Baseball took home OUA bronze
- Women's Lacrosse won OUA silver
- Men's Water Polo took OUA bronze
- Women's Rugby took OUA silver and advanced to the U SPORTS championship
- Both Men's and Women's Golf teams captured OUA silver
- Queen's Rowing captured 3 individual medals at the Canadian University Rowing Championships
- Women's Ultimate Frisbee claimed national bronze
Highlights of individual accolades this season include:
- Branna MacDougall took OUA gold and U SPORTS bronze in Cross Country
- Claire Sumner took silver at the U SPORTS Cross Country championships
- Rachelle Seguin was honoured as OUA and U SPORTS Coach of the Year for Field Hockey
- Sophie De Goede was named both the OUA and U SPORTS Rookie of the Year for Women's Rugby
- Spencer Abraham was named to the U SPORTS Men's Hockey All-Star team for the third straight year
- Queen's Baseball pitcher Will Langford threw a historic no-hitter game in September
- Robyn Campbell won OUA silver in women's golf
The fall has been a busy one for Queen's Athletics in terms of community involvement as well. Our Varsity Leadership Council, an organization led by student-athletes at Queen's, collected 540lbs of canned food from Gaels athletes for Kingston's Partners in Mission Food Bank, and also led the way in a food collection campaign with Martha's Table prior to the holidays. Queen's Athletics has partnered with Pathways to Education, and along with our Varsity Leadership Council, will work to create mentorship and educational opportunities for local high school students throughout the year. On November 29, we hosted 1,800 local elementary school students from 26 schools across Kingston for our special School-Day basketball games – the energetic crowd was treated to wins by both our Men's and Women's Basketball teams.
Our winter sport teams are all off to a fantastic start as well, and we look forward to more banners and medals in the coming months! We are once again hosting the annual Carr-Harris cup on February 1st at the K Rock Centre along with many more games and championships.
As you can see, our student-athletes continue to accomplish incredible feats - none of which could be made possible without your generous support. You give our student-athletes every opportunity to succeed as leaders in the classroom, in competition, and in the community, while they continue to receive the top-quality experience that generations of Gaels have enjoyed.
Thank you to all our donors, fans, and the many volunteers who have and will continue to support the programs that you hold close to your heart – you are our difference-makers. If you would like to make an impact in the lives of our student-athletes, please visit gogaelsgo.com/championsclub to learn more
Happy Holidays, and I wish you the very best in the year ahead. Go Gaels Go!
Leslie Dal Cin
Executive Director, Athletics & Recreation
